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This is Part 2 of my foray into the strange and disturbing world of modern French horror. I suppose this might be lumped in with the "torture porn" genre (man, I hate that term), but Martyrs has a surprising amount of depth and emotion that lifts it above the rest.
Martyrs
A young girl named Lucie escapes from an abandoned slaughterhouse, having been held captive and abused. She is sent to an orphanage, where she makes friends with (and is essentially adopted by) another young girl, Anna. Lucie, after whatever it is she escaped from, is understandably quite troubled. She is also, however, occasionally attacked by a mysterious creature.
Many years later, we see a nice, happy family having breakfast and joking around. There's a knock at the door, and when the father answers, without so much as a hello, Lucie, now an adult, unloads a shotgun on him and proceeds to kill the entire family, believing the mother to have been one of her former torturers. This is more than simple revenge, though, because Lucie is still being periodically attacked by the mysterious creature, which we soon learn is a manifestation of her own guilt at leaving another fellow inmate behind when she escaped years ago.
Lucie calls Anna to come and help her bury the bodies, which she does, but Anna discovers that the mother is still alive and tries to help her escape. The attempt is not successful, however, as Lucie finds them and kills the woman. No longer pulled by revenge, Lucie is persuaded by the "creature" created by her own mind to kill herself.
Anna, left to clean up the mess, discovers an underground chamber in the house, and within it a woman who has been imprisoned and horribly tortured. Anna pulls her out and tries to take care of her, or at least make her more comfortable, but strangers arrive at the house and kill the woman. And it is here that the movie becomes something else entirely.
It turns out that Lucie was right in thinking that the mother of the family she slaughtered was one of her torturers. We find this out because Anna is soon captured and taken to a woman who is the leader of a cult that has been kidnapping and torturing human beings because they believe that the experience of intense pain lifts a person into a state of enlightenment, enabling them to see the secrets of the afterlife. Their captives are mostly young women, because, the woman says, they are the most receptive to pain. [Side note: As much as I admire this film, I find it a bit disappointing that it still found a new and cruel way to make young women victims, when they so often are such throughout the horror genre. Share the pain, jerks!]
Anna is now going to be the cult's new experiment. They lock her in a room and shackle her to a chair, much like the one we see young Lucie sitting in earlier in the film, with a hole in the seat and a pot underneath so that there's no need for her to ever move from the chair, even to relieve herself. She is beaten repeatedly, over a period of days, weeks, perhaps even months. When she finally stops fighting, she is told what I suppose is this insane group's version of good news - that she has reached the "final stage." Goodie! I won't subject you to what this entails, nor what it means for the cult, which is kind of the crux of the film, but as gruesome as it is, it's rather powerful.
I don't know what's in the water over there in France, but they are making some pretty incredible horror. It's horror that means something, that explores ideas and doesn't just get in your face and say "OMG ISN'T THIS GROSS?!" This film is not (AT ALL) for the weak of stomach, and I'm hard pressed to find a proper reference point to say "If you can handle this, you can handle Martyrs." But if you're interested in testing your limits, this film is well worth a look.
Martyrs
A young girl named Lucie escapes from an abandoned slaughterhouse, having been held captive and abused. She is sent to an orphanage, where she makes friends with (and is essentially adopted by) another young girl, Anna. Lucie, after whatever it is she escaped from, is understandably quite troubled. She is also, however, occasionally attacked by a mysterious creature.
Many years later, we see a nice, happy family having breakfast and joking around. There's a knock at the door, and when the father answers, without so much as a hello, Lucie, now an adult, unloads a shotgun on him and proceeds to kill the entire family, believing the mother to have been one of her former torturers. This is more than simple revenge, though, because Lucie is still being periodically attacked by the mysterious creature, which we soon learn is a manifestation of her own guilt at leaving another fellow inmate behind when she escaped years ago.
Lucie calls Anna to come and help her bury the bodies, which she does, but Anna discovers that the mother is still alive and tries to help her escape. The attempt is not successful, however, as Lucie finds them and kills the woman. No longer pulled by revenge, Lucie is persuaded by the "creature" created by her own mind to kill herself.
Anna, left to clean up the mess, discovers an underground chamber in the house, and within it a woman who has been imprisoned and horribly tortured. Anna pulls her out and tries to take care of her, or at least make her more comfortable, but strangers arrive at the house and kill the woman. And it is here that the movie becomes something else entirely.
It turns out that Lucie was right in thinking that the mother of the family she slaughtered was one of her torturers. We find this out because Anna is soon captured and taken to a woman who is the leader of a cult that has been kidnapping and torturing human beings because they believe that the experience of intense pain lifts a person into a state of enlightenment, enabling them to see the secrets of the afterlife. Their captives are mostly young women, because, the woman says, they are the most receptive to pain. [Side note: As much as I admire this film, I find it a bit disappointing that it still found a new and cruel way to make young women victims, when they so often are such throughout the horror genre. Share the pain, jerks!]
Anna is now going to be the cult's new experiment. They lock her in a room and shackle her to a chair, much like the one we see young Lucie sitting in earlier in the film, with a hole in the seat and a pot underneath so that there's no need for her to ever move from the chair, even to relieve herself. She is beaten repeatedly, over a period of days, weeks, perhaps even months. When she finally stops fighting, she is told what I suppose is this insane group's version of good news - that she has reached the "final stage." Goodie! I won't subject you to what this entails, nor what it means for the cult, which is kind of the crux of the film, but as gruesome as it is, it's rather powerful.
I don't know what's in the water over there in France, but they are making some pretty incredible horror. It's horror that means something, that explores ideas and doesn't just get in your face and say "OMG ISN'T THIS GROSS?!" This film is not (AT ALL) for the weak of stomach, and I'm hard pressed to find a proper reference point to say "If you can handle this, you can handle Martyrs." But if you're interested in testing your limits, this film is well worth a look.